Things I learned this week

“The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.”

– Dante Alighieri

This week I learned:

…that there were a few notable anniversaries:

My favorite novel Pride & Prejudice was first published 200 years ago (January 27, 1813). I usually wait until the lazy days of summer to pull it out and give it another read, but this year I think I might delve into it a little earlier.

We are the World turned 28 this week. The recording of this song and the release of the video was a profound moment in my teenage years. In all honesty, I’m not real sure I completely understood their cause at the time, but the collaboration of all of my favorite musical talents on one record nearly blew my mind.

This week, 27 years ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during lift off. I watched the launch live on television, alongside millions of other school children. I remember the level of excitement surrounding this launch. We all understood that we were watching history in the making. Then, it all went horribly wrong. I will never forget that day, what I saw, what I felt. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Johnson Space Center in Houston with my daughter’s middle school Robotics class. One of the films we watched highlighted NASA’s missions throughout the years – the triumphant and the tragedy. I probably should have been expecting it, but when the video of Challenger’s last seconds filled the screen it took my breath away.

…that the girl who sits next to me in Historical Geology has adult ADHD. I suspect she is unmedicated because surely if she were, I wouldn’t spend the first half of class trying to figure out a way to make her shut up and sit still without getting arrested for a felony.

…that I don’t have the personality for Twitter. I find the task of coming up with witty pieces of brilliance in under 140 characters on a daily basis undoable. I also don’t have the patience or the attention span to sit and scroll through all of those endless posts and reposts, and reposts of reposts. I don’t even find it an efficient source of news. There is one thing, though, that I do get a kick out of – followers. One of my favorite games is the “what if” game. I do it in the grocery store, at the gym, in traffic – everywhere. I find I can do it with Twitter followers, as well. And so, with every new follower notice, I take a minute to try to come up with their story. After that, I make a bet with myself to see how long it takes them to realize I’m not any fun and unfollow me. It never takes too long.

…that – in keeping with the Twitter thread – people actually have apps to keep track of who unfollows their twitter account. Really? If I took the time to worry about all the people who decided they didn’t like me over the years, I’d never get a damn thing done.

…and last, but not least, this week’s awww moment is brought to you by two sweet girls who make my heart smile.

3 thoughts on “Things I learned this week”

I hear you on Twitter. I have an account, but the most I do on it is post updates from my blog or share news from a fellow blogger or something going on in the world. I would rather spend my time and energy on short, punchy sentences that grab readers for my novel, not a tweet.

All anniversaries I can similarly relate to, Peggy. As for Twitter, I’m pretty much talking to myself there, but I do find it a good source of certain news – NASA’s everywhere there, and so I learn much about current missions that I wouldn’t otherwise. I’m a nerd.

I just can’t get into it. My husband uses it all the time for news, too. I think my biggest problem is the shear volume of posts to sift through. It overwhelms me. I will check out NASA, though. I enjoy that stuff.